‘Big Brother Canada’ On Hiatus, Outraged Fans Rally Behind Petition

Big Brother Canada has been put on hiatus, and many disappointed fans (and former houseguests) have signed a petition to bring it back.

Canadian TV network Global announced earlier this week that Big Brother Canada had been put on hiatus following the Big Brother Canada 5 finale. Global was not specific in its reasoning for putting the reality show on hiatus, although they told Big Brother fansite, bbspy, that the details were coming soon.

“‘Big Brother Canada’ is on hiatus for the coming broadcast year,” a representative for Global confirmed to the site. “Further details will be announced at a later date. Global remains the broadcaster for ‘Big Brother.'”

Big Brother Canada host Arisa Cox also commented on the hiatus on Twitter, breaking the news to some clearly devastated followers.

While no one has explicitly stated that Big Brother Canada has been canceled, many fans of the show are unhappy about Global’s decision and are hoping to save the show. Former Survivor contestant Rob Cesternino, who podcasts about a variety of reality TV, including Big Brother Canada, created a petition urging Global to save the show and recognize its huge fanbase.

“After an exciting season like ‘BBCAN5,’ we can’t let ‘Big Brother Canada’ go down without a fight,” the petition reads. “Technically, ‘Big Brother Canada’ has not been canceled, it’s just simply not returning to the air unless something drastically changes. This petition is a WAKE UP (CANADA) call that there are fans around the world who want to see more ‘Big Brother Canada’ in the coming years. If you’ve enjoyed the work done by Erin Brock, Arisa Cox, Trevor Boris and the entire ‘Big Brother Canada’ team at Insight Productions, show your support and sign this petition to help ‘Big Brother’ come down off the block.”

Over 9,000 fans have already signed the petition, with less than 1,000 left to go as of Thursday to reach the 10,000 signature goal. The petition is expected to be delivered directly to Global. Many notable U.S. Big Brother houseguests have expressed their support of their Big Brother neighbors to the north.

Meanwhile, Global programming chief Barbara Williams stated that just because Big Brother Canada is being shelved for now, it doesn’t mean the series won’t return eventually.

“We never say never for the future. We are super proud of those seasons we did,” Williams said. “But the best example is something like American Idol being cancelled and coming back. You never know what can happen.”

Williams, who is the executive vice-president and chief operating officer of Corus Entertainment, Global’s parent company, suggested that they were simply looking to go in a new direction with their programming.

“We did five seasons, which was a blast, and it delivered a big young audience. But we have to keep changing it up, we have to reinvent and try new things,” she explained.

It remains to be seen if executives at Global will change their minds if the petition to save Big Brother Canada reaches its goal. Many U.S. networks had changed course after canceling shows and then seeing public outcry, as seen just a few weeks ago, when NBC initially canceled Timeless, only to announce its season 2 renewal a few days later.

Big Brother Canada premiered in 2013 on Canada’s Slice network and moved to Global starting with Season 3. Big Brother Canada 5, which ended May 18, was the first to feature returning players, with Season 3 houseguest Kevin Martin winning the game over new houseguest Karen Singbeil. Over five seasons the show took most of its format from Big Brother U.S., with houseguests voting each other out, rather than the public voting featured in many other countries’ editions of Big Brother.